I actually quite like Lena’s fake Carey Mulligan look.

Well! This wasn’t exactly the episode I was expecting, but, considering how bleak and scary the previous episode was, I guess a bit of levity was in order.

“Together” is a pretty easy episode to describe the main events of. We basically got two acts for each set of characters: in the first act they all had lots of arguments and falling outs and things were worse than they’d ever been and, in the second, everyone found someone to rescue them and make life seem livable again.

Charlie and Marnie have an argument about whether they’re in a relationship or not. This ends in a somewhat cheesy scene of them declaring their love for each other once and for all (also, Marnie says she wants to have Charlie’s brown babies… What is…? Isn’t he…? I thought he was just tan.). Ray finds out from his boss (who turns out to be Colin Quinn, awesomely enough) that he’ll be heading up his own new branch of the Café Grumpy in Brooklyn Heights, which he believes is just what he needs to demonstrate to Shoshanna that he has some kind of ambition. However, there’s obviously more to Shosh’s recent coldness toward Ray recently and she breaks up with him anyway. Adam, whose girlfriend Natalia amazingly enough did not break up with him, is dealing with being reined in by her and being made to be a nice(r) guy who doesn’t get to live out his porny S&M fantasies. And Hannah’s spiral continues down and down as she attempts to reach out to people, but Jessa’s gone; her dad makes a stand and refuses to bail her out; she gets some brief solace at Laird’s place but he becomes put off by her total self-involvement; and, though Marnie comes to Hannah’s apartment willing to help, Hannah hides from her (rather hilariously), looking like a bit of a Gollum-type in the process.

Inevitably, it is Adam she turns to and he happens to be at a pretty low point himself having a dramatic freak-out and destroying the hell outta that boat-raft-thing he’s been working on the whole season (series?). He sees (through his new iPhone which has video chatting capabilities) that Hannah is all messed up and having a weird OCD freakout. He dashes, shirtless as he must be for her, over to her apartment as the soundtrack swells, staying on the phone with her the whole time, finally reaching her door, he breaks it down and rescues her from herself. They kiss. It was a bit much for a show that skews a bit more realistic.*

But I don’t mind the broad strokes of what actually took place here. It’s just the way that these things took place came a bit closer than I’m comfortable with to cliché territory. I should still note how great all the arguments were that everyone was having in the earlier half of the episode. If there’s one thing Girls does brilliantly, it’s arguments. They always feel real because of how scattered and unfocused they are and, though they’re there to introduce and further dramatic plot points, they always make me laugh. Even when there aren’t explicit jokes being made, just the behavior of characters fighting and the semi-nonsensicality of what they say to each other in anger is always hilarious in this show. Also, Jon Glaser as Laird is one of the most wonderful and sweetly funny characters on this show and his one little scene here was completely welcome and fantastic.

All in all, after dragging us through the muck for several episodes (culminating in the pure horror of “On All Fours”), “Together” clearly wanted to go out on a more upbeat note. However, in truth, the levity introduced here is in itself highly questionable in terms of whether or not it is truly positive. After all, really, what we’ve got here are mostly people restored to how they were when the series began: Marnie’s back with Charlie and Hannah’s back with Adam. Jessa’s off traveling, meaning she’s actually regressed to the state she was in before the series began. The only person to “progress” is Shoshanna who is making the most of her belated sexual awakening (the last shot we get of her, she’s making out with a typical tall, blonde guy—the type she dismissed as being not at all her type earlier in the episode). Really, what we have here are events that are presented as overwhelmingly positive but with the potential to be some of the worst decisions these ladies could’ve made.

More than that, I found it quite cool there was still a lot of stuff left totally unresolved. Jessa didn’t come back, Hannah did not make her book deadline, Shosh never actually admitted to Ray that she’d cheated on him, Ray is alone again (though I guess has a coffee shop to run now, at any rate), and—most impressively—Hannah and Marnie have yet to reconcile. This episode might’ve gone for the dramatic romancey shit a little too hard for my liking, but these girls’ lives are still in a decided state of uncertain turmoil.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wait, did that sound creepy? Sorry about that.

* Still, overdramatic though I found Adam and Hannah’s reunion, even my stony heart couldn’t help feeling a little tickling for them getting back together. Plus, it means Adam is still going to be on the show. Which is awesome. Because he’s great.